1. Field of the Invention:
Glass micorchannel plates in glass mountings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Glass microchannel plates are normally very fragile and difficult to handle during certain stages of their manufacture and also in adapting them to electron multiplying image intensifying devices and the like in which they are intended for use. Accordingly, it has been desirable to mount these plates within solid glass annuli or rims for strengthening thereof.
Heretofore, however, separation of the plates from respective rims commonly occurs during or following activation of the plate glasses within reducing atmospheres which are used for the usual purpose of rendering channels of the lead-containing glass plates electrically semi-conductive. This separation is due primarily to shrinkage of the plate structure as a result of removal of oxygen from its glasses. Activation in reducing atmospheres additionally tends to alter the expansion coefficient of lead-containing glasses with little of different effect upon the usual solid glass rim in each case. The thus created mismatch in expansion coefficients of the channel plate material and its rim tends to cause further fracturing of the assembly.
This invention relates to matters of overcoming undue strain in the aforementioned type of rim-to-plate connections regardless of plate shrinkage during processing and avoidance of fracturing due to occurrences of expansion coefficient mismatching in glass mounted microchannel plates.